Hong Kong Should Cut Quarantine to One Week, Lawmaker Says

March 21, 2022 Hong Kong Crime & Legal

Hong Kong should reduce the amount of time travelers need to quarantine to one week, but the city shouldn’t open up to the world without locking down and testing the whole population for Covid-19, lawmaker Michael Tien said.

Tien said a mandatory testing blitz of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents should coincide with a nine-day city-wide lockdown to arrest the city’s worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic started. He also said opening the border to China should be a “secondary consideration” at the moment.

“I think the hotel quarantine period for anyone coming in should be reduced to seven days,” Tien said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “At this point I think letting come back and relaxing quarantine for overseas travelers is more important to Hong Kong” than opening the border with China, he added.

The testing drive and lockdown should occur in mid-April, said Tien, a Hong Kong lawmaker and founder of the G2000 Group chain of clothing stores.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is expected to later Monday announce changes to the city’s pandemic response, after last week flagging a review spurred by frustration within the financial and general community.